The 50:50 Campaign: Hope for women empowerment

The inclusion of women in political leadership positions has not reached desired levels in Malawi even after 24 years of democracy, which guarantees equal rights for all.

Malawi is one of the lowest ranked countries in terms of including women in national governance, contributing a paltry 16 percent of parliamentary seats in a 193-strong national legislature and 1.5 percent in a 20-member Cabinet.

But in 2018, there came a ray of hope that more women, who form 52 percent of the population, would have a chance at being included in political leadership.

It was in this year that government, through the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare aided by a K1.1 billion grant from the Royal Norwegian Embassy, embarked on the 50:50 Campaign­—a collaborative and interactive project designed to resolve gender disparities and include more women in key governance positions.

 “The grant is aimed for a two-year project aimed to increase the number of women in politics through interventions that target the public as voters, women themselves, civil society organisations and other key players,” reads a statement issued by the embassy in February 2017.

During the project’s inception, it was planned that the grant would be managed by a consortium comprising the Centre for Civil Society Strengthening (CCSS) and ActionAid Malawi in conjunction with other stakeholders, including United Nations agencies, Parliamentary Women’s Caucus and community-based organisations (CBOs).

From the outset, former Norwegian Ambassador Kikkan Haugen noted that Malawi would need to implement a different approach to encourage women’s participation in politics following an apparent downturn in female representatives in Parliament and local councils in the May 2014 Tripartite Elections.

The number of women representatives declined to 16.7 percent (32 women), after rising steadily since the onset of democratic rule from 5.4 percent or 10 female legislators in 1994, to nine percent (18 women) in 1999, then 15 percent (27 women) and then peaking at 22.3 percent (43 female candidates) in 2009.

Haugen urged politicians during a media interaction in Lilongwe in 2017 to take a leading role in ensuring that more women are integrated in decision-making at party level.

He said at the time: “It is important that Malawi finds its own solutions. But there is need to get political parties on the side of women, challenge them to provide a conducive environment for women standing for elective conference.”

Speaking at the same event, ActionAid executive director Grace Malera said political parties’ involvement and commitment was important in creating an enabling environment, considering that women start out at a disadvantage in the male-dominated arena.

She said: “It is without question that women start out in politics at a disadvantage, but the 50:50 Campaign is attempting to level the playing field. This will be done through the pillars of coordination through the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare, programming around the electoral cycle and challenging social cultural norms so that the transformative agenda is carried on through young women.”

The 50:50 Campaign Management team leader Viwemi Chavula would later observe that the goal of gender equality in economic and political governance would only be possible if there were concerted efforts to change perceptions of women’s roles in national governance.

He said: “We need to change our way of thinking and give women an opportunity to assume leadership positions in all sectors of the economy. We need to change societal stereotyping about women involvement in politics. There is need for community mobilisation and raising awareness on the dimension that women add when given a chance to lead.”

Thus, the 50:50 Campaign was revived to be built around two pillars; encouraging women representation at partly level and changing flawed perceptions of women governance at community level. 

A selection of political parties, including the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and United Democratic Front (UDF) responded to the call for a more proactive role in reducing gender disparities in political governance by pledging to formulate policies that incorporate more women in decision-making.

“There is a need to entrench the mindset that political parties should support women in their capacity to deliver, not just because they are women,” said MCP secretary general Eisenhower Mkaka.

On his part, People’s Party (PP) treasurer general Yusuf Matumula proposed that the 50:50 Campaign should start early enough to allow more women to participate in elections.

He said: “Make sure political parties are approached before the elections, at a time when they are making policies not when candidates have been identified to contest, because most will be men who won in the primaries.”

On its part, the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) trimmed by half women’s nomination fees for the 2019 Tripartite Elections to encourage women, youths and people with disabilities to participate in the May elections. While male aspiring members of Parliament (MPs) will pay K500 000, their female counterparts will pay K250 000, the youth (less than 35 years) K375 000 and candidates with disabilities K250 000.

In the local government elections, male candidates will pay K40 000, females K20 000, youths K30 000 and those with disabilities K20 000. All these fees are non-refundable.

Since the project’s inception in February 2018, a number of non-governmental organisations, notably UN Women, Women’s Legal Resources Centre (Wolrec) and ActionAid have been engaging chiefs and women politicians nationwide to canvass support for female candidates ahead of the elections.

Chiefs and other stakeholders in Mzimba pledged in May to support the He4She Campaign to empower women to contest for political positions within their political parties, with Inkosi Kampingo Sibande saying he would ensure that men support women in the forthcoming elections.

In July 2018, Governance, Gender, Justice and Development Centre in Nkhotakota announced that 47 female candidates had expressed interest to contest in the May 21 Tripartite Elections, up from one who contested and lost in 2014–an obvious sign of the campaign’s success.

With barely five months to the tripartite elections, there is cause for optimism that Malawi will make some strides towards achieving its goal of gender parity in national governance. There seems to be more belief in women’s capacity to govern and women themselves seem keen to take up leadership positions.